Jonathan's Space Report No. 766 2019 Jul 7 Somerville, MA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- International Space Station --------------------------- Cargo ship Dragon CRS-17 returned to Earth on Jun 3. The 9-tonne CRS-17 was unberthed from the Harmony module at 1235 UTC, released by Canadarm-2 at 1601 UTC, and fired its engines to deorbit at about 2056 UTC. The trunk, containing the old CATS and SCAN experiments, was jettisoned and destroyed on reentry about 2120 UTC. Capsule C113 landed in the Pacific at about 121W 32N at roughly 2150 UTC. Cargo ship Progress MS-10 undocked from the Zvezda module at 0840 UTC Jun 4. After a deorbit burn at 1146 UTC, it reentered the atmosphere and fragments fell in the Pacific east of New Zealand at 1229 UTC. Cygnus CRS-11 remains berthed at Unity nadir, and Progress MS-11 is docked to Pirs. On Jun 13-15 the Dextre arm was used to relocate several spares on the external pallets: LDU spare ESP-3 Site 4 to ESP-3 Site 3 CMG spare ELC-2 Site 5 to ESP-3 Site 4 BCDU spare ESP-3 Site 6 to ELC-1 Site 4 BCDU FSE ELC-1 Site 4 to ESP-3 Site 6 On Jun 17 four cubesats were deployed from the J-SSOD-11 dispensers on the end of the Kibo module's JRMS robot arm. The three 1U BIRDS-3 satellites were Uguisu, for Kyushu Inst. of Technology; NepaliSat-1 for Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (Kathmandu); and Raavana-1 for the Arthur C. Clarke Institute of Modern Technologies (Colombo/Moratuwa, Sri Lanka). The fourth cubesat, of 3U size, is SpooQy-1, for the National University of Singapore, with an experiment to transmit entangled photon pairs to an optical ground station. At 2352 UTC on Jun 24 astronauts Konononeko, McClain and Saint-Jacques undocked from the Poisk module in Soyuz MS-11. The ship landed in Kazakhstan at 0247 UTC Jun 25. The undocking of Soyuz MS-11 marked the start of Expedition 60 under the command of Aleksey Ovchinin. On Jun 27 the Dextre robot arm was used to remove the Kaber deployer from the Kibo module airlock and deploy DARPA's RED-EYE microsatellite, launched to ISS aboard Dragon CRS-17. On Jul 3 the Kibo RMS extracted the NanoRacks NRCSD-16 payload from the Kibo airlock. 7 cubesats (described in JSR764) were deployed from NRCSD-16. CZ-11H ------ China carried out its first sea-launched orbital attempt on Jun 5. A CZ-11H (ocean version of the Chang Zheng 11) was launched from a barge in the Hwang Hai (Yellow Sea) at 121.19E 34.90N. It carried seven satellites to a 560 x 585 km x 45.0 deg orbit. The fourth stage and one other object were cataloged in a 270 x 634 km x 44.9 deg orbit. The payloads are: Jilin-1 Gaofen 03A, for Changguang Sat Tech Co. of Jilin province; Bufeng-1A and 1B, formation flying sats from CAST/Beijing for remote sensing of wind velocities. Tianxiang 1 and 2 (also called Zhongdian Wangtong 1A and 1B), 65 kg satellites for the China Electronic Technology Group, to test Ka-band intersatellite links and a space-based router. Also carrying multispectral camera and ADS-B. Xiaoxiang-1-04, from Tianyi Research Inst., has a 7-metre-resolution RGB camera and a deorbit sail. Tianqi-3 (also called Xingzhi Jiaoyu 1) built by Guodian Gaokeji for the Tao Zhixing Education Foundation, has a camera and an IoT relay payload. As usual China and the US military space tracking team are not communicating, so we don't know which tracked object (catalog number) corresponds to which satellite. RCM --- Canada's Radarsat Constellation Mission was launched on Jun 12. A Falcon 9 took off from a foggy Vandenberg and flew to sun-synchronous orbit. The first stage landed back at Vandenberg's Landing Zone 4 while the second stage deployed the three RCM satellites. RCM uses the Magellan Aerospace MAC-200 bus previously used for the Cassiope mission; the satellites have a wet mass of 1450 kg each and carry a 7-meter-long C-band synthetic aperture radar. The SAR has a maximum resolution of 3m with a 20 km swath, but can also operate in lower resolution modes down to 100m resolution/500 km swath. Radarsat 1 operated from 1995 to 2013; Radarsat 2 was launched in 2007 and will be replaced by the new trio. Ariane 5 -------- Arianespace launched mission VA248, launcher L5107, on Jun 20. It carried two communication satellite payloads to geotransfer orbit. Eutelsat 7C for Eutelsat S.A. is a Maxar 1300 satellite with an all-electric xenon propulsion system and a Ku-band broadcast payload. T-16 for AT&T is an Airbus Eurostar 3000LX Hybrid of 6330 kg launch mass and a Ku/Ka-band communications payload. T-16 was originally going to be DirectTV-16 before DirecTV was absorbed into AT&T. By Jul 3 T-16 was in geostationary orbit at 134.8W. By Jul 3 E7C had begun slow orbit raising and was in a 1409 x 37079 km x 6.0 deg orbit. Beidou ------ On Jun 24 China's CALT launched Chang Zheng 3B no. Y60 with the No. 46 Beidou Navigation Satellite into geotransfer orbit. The payload is made an apogee burn to a 55 degree inclined synchronous orbit sometime prior to Jul 5, and is now in a 35730 x 35831 km x 55.0 deg drift orbit. STP-2 ----- SpaceX's third Falcon Heavy was launched at 0630 UTC on Jun 25 with the US Air Force Space Test Program's STP-2 paylaod cluster. The side boosters landed at Cape Canaveral's LZ1 and LZ2; the core stage nearly landed 1240 km downrange on the OCISLY but just missed the ship. Musk reported that the hot, fast reentry breached the engine bay and the center engine's thrust vector control failed, causing the stage to divert. Even further downrange, one fairing half was recovered, landing in the net carried by the ship Ms. Tree. Stage 2 entered a 305 x 850 km x 28.5 km orbit at 0638 UTC and deployed a series of payloads: 0642 UTC OCULUS-ASR for Michigan Tech, a 70 kg satellite with space surveillance calibration experiments. 0649 UTC PPOD-1 deployed the TEPCE 1/2 cubesat, two 1.5U cubesats with a 1 km tether. 0654 UTC PPOD-2 deployed Falconsat-7, a USAF Academy 3U cubesat with an experimental membrane-optic solar telescope 0658 UTC PPOD-3 deployed ARMADILLO, a U. Texas 3U cubesat to study the LEO dust environment 0701 UTC PPOD-4 deployed PSAT-2 and BRICSAT-2, US Naval Academy 1.5U amateur radio cubesats. BRICSAT (Ballistically Reinforced Cubesat) also has an electric thruster experiment. PSAT-1 and BRICSAT-1 were launched in 2015, but BRICSAT-1failed. 0703 UTC PPOD-5 deployed a 1.5U cubesat for US Special Operations Command, probably Prometheus-2.5. A dummy model of a second Prometheus was also in the deployer, replacing a satellite that was transferred to another launch. 0709 UTC PPOD-6 deployed the 3U E-TBEX A Enhanced Tandem Beacon Experiment, a 3U cubesat with tri-frequency ionospheric beacons to study ionospheric waves with high time resolution. The mission is lead by SRI and sponsored by NASA. 0713 UTC PPOD-7 deployed E-TBEX B. 0720 UTC PPOD-8 deployed Cal Poly's 2U CP9/LEO and Merritt Island High School's 1U Stangsat, which studied the launch vehicle and ejection environment. At 0742 UTC the Falcon Heavy Stage 2 fired its engine to move to a 710 x 724 km x 24.0 deg orbit. A series of small satellites were ejected in this second orbit. 0749 UTC the 70 kg PROX-1 satellite from Georgia Tech was deployed. This satellite contains the Planetary Society's LightSail-2 solar sail cubesat which will be ejected and deployed in the coming weeks. 0752 UTC came the 83 kg NPSAT1 for the Naval Postgraduate School. NPSAT1 carries ionospheric and technology experiments. 0754 UTC came the circa-100 kg-class OTB (Orbital Test Bed) for General Atomics (formerly SST-US). It carries the JPL Deep Space Atomic Clock and the Celestis Heritage capsule with the cremated remains of 152 people (including astronaut W. Pogue and SF author Jayge Carr). 0757 UTC GPIM, NASA-MSFC's Green Propellant Infusion Mission, was deployed. GPIM uses a Ball BCP-100 bus and has a mass of about 180 kg. It uses AF-M315E hydroxyl ammonium nitrate (NH3OHNO3) propellant proposed as a less toxic alternative to hydrazine. 0801, 0804, 0806, 0809, 0813 and 0816 UTC, the six COSMIC-2 satellites were deployed in the order COSMIC 2-5, 2-6, 2-2, 2-4, 2-1, 2-3. The NOAA/NASA/Taiwan NSPO satellites carry a GPS-RO meteorology payload. They are successors to the six similar COSMIC-1 (FORMOSAT-3) satellites launched in April 2006. At 0837 UTC Stage 2 made a further burn to reach an approximately 700 x 6000 km x 42.1 deg orbit. Delta-V of the burn was about 2700 m/s. At 0957 UTC the fourth Stage 2 burn, over the equator at 140E, put the vehicle in a 6000 x 12000 km x 42.1 deg orbit with a delta-V of about 1360 m/s. At 1004 UTC the 668 kg DSX satellite was deployed. The USAF STP payload carries space weather and technology experiments. After this, at around 1515 UTC, the 2nd stage reached perigee and underwent `passivation' (jettison of remaining propellants and safing of batteries). LightSail-2 was ejected from PROX-1 at 0749 UTC on Jul 2. Electron 7 ---------- RocketLab launched its 7th Electron mission on Jun 29, placing the BlackSky Global 3 satellite and at least 5 cubesat payloads in a 45 degree orbit. The payloads include two SpaceBee satellites from Swarm Tech, two Prometheus cubesats for US Special Operations Command, and ACRUX 1 for the Melbourne Space Program, a group of Australian students. An unidentified payload was also aboard. Meteor-M 2-2 ----------- Russia's Meteor-M No. 2-2 weather satellite was launched on Jul 5 by a Soyuz/Fregat from Vostochniy. The Fregat stage deployed the 2900 kg Meteor in an 820 km orbit and then made two burns to enter a lower 580 km orbit to release a batch of small satellites: ICEYE-X3 and ICEYE-X4, radar satellites for Finland's ICEYE, probably about 80 kg eahc. CarboNIX, a test satellite for EXOLAUNCH (formerly ECM) of Berlin, 30 kg. (CarboNIX is also the low-shock separaton system provided by EXOLAUNCH, but Gunter Krebs reports it as a satellite payload as well) DoT-1, a 20 kg technology demonstrator from Surrey Satellite El Camino Real, a test of a water-plasma thruster for Momentus Space of Santa Clara, California in a 16U Astro Digital cubesat, probably about 20 kg. NSLSat-1, a 6U ClydeSpace cubesat for NSL Comms of Tel Aviv (not to be confused with the NSL that is the Indiana-based NearSpaceLaunch). SEAM-2.0, a 3U cubesat for KTH (Sweden) to study VLF/ELF ionospheric waves and auroral currents SONATE, a 3U cubesat from Wurzburg Univ. with technology payloads JAISAT-1, a 3U cubesat for the 'Smakhm withyu smakhr len haeng prathesthiy' (Radio Amateur Society of Thailand), built by German Orbital Systems. EXOCONNECT and LightSat, two DStar-One communications 3U cubesats from German Orbital Systems. Ecuador-UTE, a 3U cubesat from UTE (Quito) in collaboration with YuZGU (Kursk). Lucky-7, a 1U test satellite from SkyFox Labs of Prague MOVE-IIb, a 1U test satellite from Tech. U of Munich. MTCube, also called ROBUSTA 1c, a 1U cubesat from the U. Montepellier 2, France. Koit (TTU101), a 1U cubesat from TTU, Tallinn, Estonia. (Koit means dawn; a sister cubesat awaiting launch is called Hamarik, meaning twilight.) BEESAT-9, a 1U cubesat from TUB, Berlin with a technology experiment. BEESAT-10, 11, 12, 13 are a set of four 0.25U cubesats from TUB to test intersatellite communication and formation flying. AmGU-1 is a 3U test satellite from Amur State University (Blagoveshchensk) and Moscow State University (MGU). Sokrat is a 3U satellite from MGU. VDNKh-80 is a 3U satellite built by MGU for the VDNKh exhibition center in Moscow. 8 SpireGlobal Lemur-2 satellites; one is LEMR2126 MORAG, but the others have not been publicly named yet. Orbituary --------- At 0616 UTC Jul 3 the CZ-3B Y56 third stage (SSN 43921) from the Jan 2019 launch of ZX-2D reentered and broke up over southern Florida causing widespread meteor reports. Note ----- Rico Nizzo reports their translation of JSR into French, available at https://subbed.org/jsr Table of Recent Orbital Launches ---------------------------------- Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL. Catalog Perigee Apogee Incl Notes May 4 0648 Dragon CRS-17 Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Cargo 25A S44222 204 x 382 x 51.6 May 5 0600 Harbinger ) Electron Mahia LC1 Radar 26E S44229 484 x 512 x 40.0 SPARC-1 ) Tech 26B S44226 493 x 511 x 40.0 AFOTEC-1 ) Cal 26A S44225 496 x 511 x 40.0 May 17 1548 Beidou DW45 Chang Zheng 3C Xichang LC2 Navigation 27A S44231 198 x35743 x 19.4 May 22 0000 RISAT-2B PSLV-CA Satish Dhawan FLP Radar 28A S44233 550 x 558 x 37.0 May 22 2249 Yaogan 33 Chang Zheng 4C Taiyuan Radar F04 F01439 -6000?x 500?x 97.8? May 24 0230 Starlink 01 ) Falcon 9 Canaveral SLC40 Comms 29A S44235 434 x 443 x 53.0 Starlink 02 ) Comms . ... ) . Starlink 60 ) Comms 29BM S44294 450 x 453 x 53.0 May 27 0623 Glonass-M No 58 Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat Plesetsk LC43/4 Navigation 30A S44299 19128 x19156 x 64.8 May 30 1742 Yamal-601 Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur Comms 31A S44307 6749 x35716 x 17.1 Jun 5 0406 Jilin-1 GaoFen 03A ) Chang Zheng 11H Barge, Yellow Sea Imaging 32 S44310 558 x 576 x 45.0 Tianqi-3 ) Comms 32 S44311 556 x 576 x 45.0 Xiaoxiang-1 04 xing ) Imaging 32 S44312 557 x 575 x 45.0 Bufeng-1A ) Meteo 32 S44313 555 x 576 x 45.0 Bufeng-1B ) Meteo 32 S44314 555 x 576 x 45.0 Tianxiang 1 ) Tech 32 S44315 552 x 576 x 45.0 Tianxiang 2 ) Tech 32 S44316 556 x 576 x 45.0 Jun 12 1417 RCM-1 ) Falcon 9 Vandenberg SLC4E Radar 33A S44322 584 x 604 x 97.8 0600LT SSO RCM-2 ) Radar 33B S44323 584 x 604 x 97.8 0600LT SSO RCM-3 ) Radar 33C S44324 584 x 604 x 97.8 0600LT SSO Jun 17 1015 Uguisu ) ISS, LEO Tech 9867QG S44331 405 x 417 x 51.6 Raavana-1 ) Tech 9867QF S44330 405 x 417 x 51.6 NepaliSat-1 ) Tech 9867QE S44329 405 x 417 x 51.6 Jun 17 1020 SpooQy-1 ISS, LEO Tech 9867QH S44332 405 x 417 x 51.6 Jun 20 2143 T-16 ) Ariane 5 Kourou ELA3 Comms 34A S44333 255 x35737 x 6.0 Eutelsat 7C ) Comms 34B S44334 251 x35714 x 6.0 Jun 24 1809 Beidou DW46 Chang Zheng 3B Xichang LC3 Nav 35A S44337 200 x35822 x 28.6 Jun 25 0630 OCULUS-ASR ) Tech 36 305 x 858 x 28.5 TEPCE 1 ) Falcon Heavy Kennedy LC39A Tech 36 305 x 858 x 28.5 TEPCE 2 ) Tech 36 305 x 858 x 28.5 DOTSI/Falconsat-7 ) Tech 36 305 x 858 x 28.5 ARMADILLO ) Tech 36 305 x 858 x 28.5 PSAT-2 ) Comms 36U S44357 305 x 858 x 28.5 BRICSAT-2 ) Tech 36 305 x 858 x 28.5 Prometheus-2.5? ) Comms 36 305 x 858 x 28.5 Prometheus Mass Sim ) Inert 36 305 x 858 x 28.5 E-TBEx A ) Science 36 305 x 858 x 28.5 E-TBEx B ) Science 36 305 x 858 x 28.5 LEO-CP9 ) Tech 36 305 x 858 x 28.5 StangSat ) Tech 36 305 x 858 x 28.5 PROX-1 ) Tech 36A? S44339 710 x 724 x 24.0 NPSAT-1 ) Science 36B S44340 710 x 724 x 24.0 OTB ) Tech/Burial 36 710 x 724 x 24.0 GPIM ) Tech 36 710 x 724 x 24.0 COSMIC 2-1 ) Meteo 36 710 x 724 x 24.0 COSMIC 2-2 ) Meteo 36 710 x 724 x 24.0 COSMIC 2-3 ) Meteo 36 710 x 724 x 24.0 COSMIC 2-4 ) Meteo 36 710 x 724 x 24.0 COSMIC 2-5 ) Meteo 36 710 x 724 x 24.0 COSMIC 2-6 ) Meteo 36 710 x 724 x 24.0 DSX ) Science 36F 5994 x12012 x 42.2 Jun 27 2005 RED-EYE ISS, LEO Tech 9867QJ S44364 408 x 418 x 51.6 Jun 29 0430 BlackSky Global 3 ) Electron Mahia LC1 Imaging 37A S44365 452 x 460 x 45.0 SpaceBEE 8 ) Comms 37 452 x 460 x 45.0 SpaceBEE 9 ) Comms 37 452 x 460 x 45.0 ACRUX 1 ) Tech 37 452 x 460 x 45.0 Prometheus 2.6? ) Comms 37 452 x 460 x 45.0 Prometheus 2.7? ) Comms 37 452 x 460 x 45.0 UNIDENTIFIED PAYLOAD) UNK 37 452 x 460 x 45.0 Jul 2 0749 LightSail-2 PROX-1, LEO Tech 36 710 x 724 x 24.0 Jul 3 1015 IOD-1 GEMS ISS, LEO Tech 9867QK S44385 408 x 418 x 51.6 Jul 3 1150 KrakSat ) ISS, LEO Tech 9867 408 x 418 x 51.6 Swiatowid ) Tech 9867 408 x 418 x 51.6 Jul 3 1450 VCC-A Aeternitas) ISS, LEO Tech 9867 408 x 418 x 51.6 VCC-B Libertas ) Tech 9867 408 x 418 x 51.6 VCC-C Ceres ) Tech 9867 408 x 418 x 51.6 Jul 3 1625 EntrySat ISS, LEO Tech 9867 408 x 418 x 51.6 Jul 5 0541 Meteor-M No. 2-2 ) Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat Vostochniy Weather 38A S44387 812 x 816 x 98.7 ICEYE-X3 ) Radar 38B? S44388 574 x 595 x 97.7 ICEYE-X4 ) Radar 38C? S44389 574 x 595 x 97.7 CarboNIX ) Tech 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 DoT-1 ) Tech 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 El Camino Real ) Tech 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 NSLSat-1 ) Tech/Comm 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 SEAM 2.0 ) Science 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 SONATE ) Tech 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 JAISAT 1 ) Comm 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 EXOCONNECT ) Comm 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 LightSat ) Comm 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 Ecuador-UTE ) Tech 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 Lucky-7 ) Tech 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 MOVE-IIb ) Tech 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 MTCube ) Tech 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 Koit TTU101 ) Imaging 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 BEESAT 9 ) Tech 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 BEESAT 10 ) Tech 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 BEESAT 11 ) Tech 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 BEESAT 12 ) Tech 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 BEESAT 13 ) Tech 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 Lemur-2 ) Met/AIS 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 Lemur-2 ) Met/AIS 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 Lemur-2 ) Met/AIS 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 Lemur-2 ) Met/AIS 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 Lemur-2 ) Met/AIS 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 Lemur-2 ) Met/AIS 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 Lemur-2 ) Met/AIS 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 Lemur-2 ) Met/AIS 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 AmGU 1 ) Tech 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 Sokrat ) Tech 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 VDNKh-80 ) Tech 38 574 x 595 x 97.7 Table of Recent Suborbital Launches ----------------------------------- The launch of the DLR/SSC ATEK/MAPHEUS-8 from ESRANGE (Kiruna, Sweden) in June reportedly saw the introduction of a new sounding rocket, the Improved Malemute/VS-30 (I haven't fully confirmed this yet, other sources say it was just an ordinary VSB-30). Date UT Payload/Flt Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission Apogee/km Target May 1 0942 GT230GM Minuteman III Vandenberg LF10 Op Test 1300? Kwajalein May 2 1334? New Shepard NS-12 New Shepard West Texas Test 105 West Texas May 3 2045 Momo TF-3 Momo Taiki Test 118 Pacific Ocean May 9 0740 GT229GM Minuteman III Vandenberg LF09 Op Test 1300? Kwajalein May 9 DASO-29 Trident II D-5 USS Rhode Island, ETR Op Test 1000? S Atlantic May 10 SM-3 KV SM-3-IB USS Roosevelt, Hebrides Test 150? Atlantic May 23 Shaheen II RV Shaheen II Somniani? Op Test 300? Arabian Sea Jun 1 2015? RV JL-3? Submarine,Bohai Sea Test 1000? Taklamakan Desert Jun 13 0221 ATEK/MAPHEUS 8 IM/VS-30 ESRANGE Microgravity 240 ESRANGE Jun 19 1128 TooWINDY 1 Black Brant IX Kwajalein Ionosphere 373 Pacific Jun 19 1133 TooWINDY 2 Black Brant IX Kwajalein Ionosphere 412 Pacific Jun 20 0938 NASA 41.126UO Terrier Imp.Orion Wallops Island Education 117 Atlantic Jun 24 0652 MASER 14 VSB-30 ESRANGE Microgravity 260 ESRANGE .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. | Jonathan McDowell | | | Somerville MA 02143 | inter : planet4589 at gmail | | USA | twitter: @planet4589 | | | | JSR: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html | | Back issues: http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back | | Subscribe/unsub: http://www.planet4589.org/mailman/listinfo/jsr | '-------------------------------------------------------------------------'